FBI Puts Top Priority on Bombed Van : Federal Experts Comb Site in La Jolla for Possible Terrorism

Assembling an elite team of experts and assigning the case “the very highest priority,” federal officials intensified their investigation Saturday into the pipe-bombing of a van being driven by the wife of Will Rogers III, captain of the San Diego-based guided missile cruiser Vincennes.

Searching for hard evidence linking the bombing to international terrorists, about 30 federal investigators meticulously combed a La Jolla intersection with brooms and metal detectors, sweeping through plants, trees and construction sites, and even the nearby roofs of stores and shops. The burned-out vehicle, from which Sharon Rogers escaped uninjured from the bombing attack Friday, was towed from the scene about 5 p.m. Saturday.

Mistaken Attack

Capt. Rogers ordered the Vincennes to fire on an approaching aircraft last July while the ship was on duty in the Persian Gulf, mistakenly thinking the plane was an attacking Iranian jet fighter. Instead, it was an Iranian commercial jetliner, which was brought down, killing all 290 people aboard. Iranian leaders at the time vowed revenge for the deaths.

Meanwhile Saturday, the Navy confirmed reports in The New York Times and Washington Post from anonymous sources in Washington that Sharon Rogers had received a threatening telephone call last summer. On Friday, a Navy spokesman had repeatedly denied there had been such a threat. He said Saturday that he had been unaware of the episode, despite reports that a security alert went out to all 350 members of the Vincennes crew after the Navy was notified of the call.

At the scene of the bombing Saturday, “teams of investigators are running out just hundreds and hundreds of leads,” said Tom A. Hughes, special agent in charge of the FBI office in San Diego.

“There are fragments that would lead one to believe this is a pipe bomb,” he added.

But, he said, “we’re not in a position to confirm what kind of device it was.”

Navy sources in Washington and San Diego said Saturday that they were hesitating to label the attack a clear-cut case of political terrorism because other motives had not been ruled out. “We’re really not sure it’s a terrorist. It could be a disgruntled sailor or something else altogether,” one source said.

‘Highest Priority’

“The FBI has assigned the very highest priority to this case, but hasn’t made the call on whether it’s a terrorist act or not, although it sure looks that way,” said one high law enforcement official in the nation’s capital.

Another Navy source pointed to the attempted bombing of a car belonging to Capt. Kenneth R. Barry, commanding officer of the Pelelieu, an amphibious helicopter landing ship based in Long Beach. That incident was blamed on a disgruntled sailor, the source said.

Barry escaped injury in March, 1987, when a pipe bomb rigged to his car failed to go off.

Meanwhile, FBI Director William Sessions said in a press conference in Des Moines Saturday that Friday’s bombing does not signal a “trend” in international terrorism.

“I don’t think we’re seeing a trend at all,” Sessions said.

But, he added, “We are deeply concerned about that kind of activity--whether it is in fact a terrorist act. You just can’t tell at this stage.”

As a result of the bombing in San Diego on Friday, security was tightened at all Navy and Marine Corps installations in the area, and some rank-and-file sailors outside the 32nd Street Naval Station--the main naval yard here--said their superiors had cautioned them to be watchful.

Rodney Vardoman, a 20-year-old sailor from St. Louis who is based in San Diego, said, “They tell us how to watch our backs,” referring to the increased security. “They told us to be more careful and take precautions.”

No Worldwide Order

In Washington, Lt. Cmdr. Chris Baumann, a Navy spokesman, said Saturday that no order has gone out to increase security at Navy installations worldwide as a result of the incident in San Diego. However, he said that some bases decided to tighten security on their own and were taking such measures as stopping cars and checking for identification instead of waving cars with decals through the gates.

At Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington state, United Press International reported that the base commander had ordered heightened security inasmuch as Whidbey-based naval ships had engaged in exchanges of fire with Iran vessels.

The pipe bomb explosion Friday ripped through the Toyota van as Sharon Rogers was en route to her job at a La Jolla private elementary school. Hearing what sounded like two loud noises from underneath the vehicle, she initially thought a motorist had struck her from behind. Moments after she stepped out to inspect any possible damage, the van exploded into a fireball.

In his account of the phone threat received by Sharon Rogers, Navy spokesman Cmdr. David Dillon said the call came at the Rogers’ San Diego home two or three days after the Iranian plane was shot down last July 3.

Phone Conversation

Dillon, a spokesman for the Pacific Surface Fleet, gave this account of the conversation:

Caller: “Is this Mrs. Rogers?”

Sharon Rogers: “Who’s this?”

Caller: “Is this Mrs. Rogers?”

Sharon Rogers: Who is this?”

Caller: “Are you the wife of the murderer?”

Sharon Rogers then hung up the phone and nothing further was heard from the man, Dillon said.

He said the incident was reported to the Naval Investigative Service and added that he knows of no other incidents approaching a threat to Rogers, his wife, or other Vincennes crew members.

Rogers and his wife were trying to maintain a low profile Saturday and have decided not to speak to reporters, Dillon said. “We have them in a safe place,” Dillon said. “Suddenly, it got very personal.”

At the scene of the bombing, the 30 investigators, including experts from the FBI bomb laboratory in Los Angeles and the agency’s explosives unit in Washington, delicately marked, examined and removed almost every shred of debris along the normally busy intersection.

“This is the cleanest street in San Diego,” said San Diego Police Officer Thomas Mason, who was guarding the perimeter from crowds of motorists, bicyclists and other spectators.

Hoisted Into Air

Most of the federal agents, clad in Windbreakers, blue jumpsuits or suits and ties, worked throughout the day Saturday. By early afternoon, they were clustered around the vehicle as a Navy forklift hoisted the burned-out van five feet into the air.

With a photographer snapping pictures of the van’s charred rear undercarriage, FBI agents wearing white gloves sifted through blackened debris on the pavement. Plainly visible from the police perimeter were charred strips of the van’s rear tires.

The agents, joined by several investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and a fire investigator, placed bits of debris in glassine and dark plastic bags. They appeared to pay special attention to chunks of debris in three clear plastic bags kept separate from the rest.

Twenty minutes later, the van was moved over one lane to the east and lowered back down onto the pavement. Groups of investigators then pored over its interior.

Officials also brought in a second Toyota van that Hughes said will be used to compare with the burned-out vehicle, and to determine if debris found from the explosion came from the Rogerses’ van or from the explosive apparatus itself.

Sift Burned Debris

Investigators also lined the street with barrels and sifted the burned debris through large metal sieves, and other agents were hunting through bushes, shrubs and on rooftops. Hughes said the evidence collected will be sent to a Washington laboratory for analysis.

“We are into an exhaustive, painstaking, lengthy investigation to determine what type of bomb it was, what was used in it and how it was detonated,” Hughes said.

“We are conducting an exhaustive investigation in a number of different directions.”

In Washington, presidential press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said no White House comment was planned until the FBI completes its investigation. Another White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said President Bush was “monitoring the news accounts. He’s concerned about it.” Times staff writer Leonard Bernstein also contributed to this article from San Diego. Staff writers Ronald J. Ostrow, Robert Jackson and John Broder reported from Washington.